


And As We're Crossing (Border After Border) (Mollymauk Tealeaf)

by RockWithItWriting



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Death, Gen, Murder, gore/burns/blood, mentions of verbal/mental/physical abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-11-02 03:29:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20607218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockWithItWriting/pseuds/RockWithItWriting
Summary: the mighty nein just want to help, but how can molly help when he can’t even think straight around you?





	And As We're Crossing (Border After Border) (Mollymauk Tealeaf)

Like any good barkeep, you know your clients. You know the Mighty Nein, you know the way they barrel into villages and save the people there, looking for gold and ale and a place to sleep. And that’s what they did in your village. Your husband had been taken in the night, stolen from the bed he commandeered, and you were thankful. You took over the tavern he owned, changed and improved everything, and it was good. Life was good.

And then the Mighty Nein came into the picture.

Of course it was good, at first. Molly leaned against your bar, his tail swishing behind him as he flirted with you. You put him off, at first, levelling a look and saying: “Mollymauk, you should know better than to flirt with a widow.” But he would shrug it off, let his hand linger against yours for a moment too long as she took his drink, and make sure to wink at you before he retired for the night. Eventually you began to ignore the looks some of your patrons gave you when you flirted back, calling him “Mr. Tealeaf” with a curl of your tongue and a flutter of one of your eyes. You leaned into him when delivering his drink across the bar, hand delivered the food for his party, letting your fingers trail over his shoulders… Mollymauk asked you for a bath house, you asked if you could join, and then Jester stole him away before you could join him and then…

Then they came back with your husband in tow. He was free, back and healthy. Jester had made sure to cast Cure Wounds before Molly delivered him to you. At first you didn’t know what you were seeing. Molly and your husband - they were two different men and treated you very differently… How could you see both of them standing in the same room and not be afraid? Molly bowed when he presented your husband. “Your husband, back in one piece.”

Jerkily you replied with a bow, never taking your eyes from the human man you had been wed to. “Thank you, Mollymauk. Some gold for your trouble.” And when you pressed it into his palm you made sure that your hand never brushed his purple skin, and you took three steps back. “Rog, I’m so happy to see you.” Your smile did not reach your eyes, and you could see Mollymauk in the corner of your vision narrow his eyes. Oh, people usually hugged their loved ones, went feral for ones they thought were dead. “Rog!” And you made yourself hug him, pulling him close to you. His skin burned where it touched you, and your stomach turned.

Molly was gone when the hug was done. Rog moved back into your room, he took over the tavern again, and everything went back to the way it was. Except, it didn’t. Because the Mighty Nein was still there, and they were just doing odd jobs for the townsfolk and Molly was still Molly… Except with you. He’d flirt with the barmaids your husband hired, but never you. No, not anymore. But you got over it, just like everything else in life.

So why did it hurt when he took the halfling to the bath house? Why did it hurt when you saw him kissing down the throat of his wizard friend? Why did your stomach ache when he avoided your touch like you were fire? It didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered.

Your husband made sure of that.

His fists hadn’t come down on you since he had been taken, but he still cornered you and yelled at you and told you that you were wrong and dirty and nothing and Molly never made you feel like that so why did Rog-

It was a normal day when you saw Molly and Jester sharing jokes over one of the hens you served them that you realized that you were in love with Mollymauk Tealeaf. It wasn’t Rog, it had never been Rog. You watched as another tiefling approached Molly with a grin on their face and turned to escape to the backroom. You could feel the build up in your chest, the familiar electric spasms, and gasped as you tried to tamper it down. No, not again… You couldn’t…

The door behind you opened, and it took everything in you not to cock your arm back and let loose on the person - but it was Molly. He was flushed, holding the door with one hand and a tankard of ale in the other. Oh, he was drunk. “Mollymauk?”

He said your name like a prayer, setting his tankard down and pulling you close by the shoulders. “Why did you give me gold?” His voice was heavy, laden with emotion as he spoke. He didn’t smell like ale… He smelt like… Tea? Had you served him tea? “Why did you pay me for bringing him back?”

“It was- it was a service? You risked your lives for him, to bring him back to me.”

“You don’t understand,” Molly choked, his eyes searching yours. He was leaning closer and closer, breath washing over your face in the cold backroom. “I almost didn’t bring him back to you. He said you name, asked for you in the tunnel and I almost killed him. If Fjord and Caleb were not there… He would be dead.” It the most earnest you had ever heard Molly speak, and you wanted to kiss him… But you also wanted to cry. How close you were to freedom, only to have it taken from you!

How close you were to Mollymauk… To having him and loving him… You were so close to just being free! Anger burned in you, aimed at Fjord and Caleb - who were nice patrons and people - for taking a future you didn’t know you almost had.

The door behind Molly opened and before either of you could react, someone took his tankard and brought it down on the base of his neck. “Molly!” Your voice broke as you tried to stifle his fall, his eyes rolling back as he was knocked out. You knelt next to him, already crying. Rog stood over you. His chest was heaving and he looked furious. “Rog, stay away.”

“He tried to kill me in the tunnel, he said that you were the happiest that he’s ever seen you without me. He’s a monster,” Rog said your name but it feels wrong. He said it like a curse. “He’s a devil!” Rog struck you with the tankard and then drew his sword, stepping toward Molly and you. A crowd had begun to form and they were gasping - Nott squirmed her way to the front and was shaking as she watched what’s unfurling. She looked like she was reaching for her bow, but if anyone was going to attack Rog… It was going to be you. Several things happened at once: Nott brought out her bow, Fjord began pushing through the crowd, Rog raised his sword, and you found yourself standing. You stood over Molly, ankles on either side of his hips, and you raised your left arm. You watched as Rog processed what you were doing just before the blue shards of electricity encompassed your arm as it was levelled at his chest.

You primed your bare arm with your other hand, sliding your palm from your wrist to your elbow slowly but surely, loading your left arm with all of the magic you knew. The tips of your fingers began to burn, blistering and eventually turning black. “Don’t-” Rog’s words were cut off when you discharged the magic you had been building, an explosion rocking the room around you. Your arm shot back, shoulder jerking so heartily you fell against the wall behind Molly’s body. Your hand and lower forearm were crackling with residual energy, blackened from the heat. Rog looked… Hurt, but absolutely pissed off. The crowd had been knocked back by the blow, and you swore.

Rog always had been a hearty human, something that your family had thought good when they betrothed you but as you were staring him down, his chest and stomach bleeding and cracking like your left arm, you knew that it was a bad thing. You had rarely used your magic, and it showed. You were exhausted, only knew the one spell, and it had already burned one of your arms beyond recognition.

But Molly needed you. Fjord had been knocked into Jester and Caleb was struggling to get them back to their feet. There was nobody… Nobody but you.

So, from where you were collapsed against the wall, you leveled your right hand at Rog’s chest again. You couldn’t prime your right arm, instead letting the magic pool in your eyes and drip down your face to your chest, shards of sharp and crackling electricity connecting between your tears and the tips of your fingertips. You screamed, pain exploding at your temples as you overexerted yourself but the magic discharged anyway, Rog stumbled back, and everything was over. His chest looked worse than your arms - both of which were bleeding and smarting and cracked and blackened from your power.

Nott reached you just as Molly began to stir, and as your vision began to tunnel into nothing. You were gasping, your tears still sharp and hot with electricity. Tear tracks began to burn down your face - the last thing you saw was Nott’s terrified face hovering over you, calling your name. Her mask hung limp around her neck.

When you woke up you expected a lot of things. You expected the pain of your arms to still be there, you expected to be arrested, you honestly didn’t expect to even be alive. But you were alive, and you were in a cart, and you were wrapped in a thick, snug… Blanket? Cloak? Something. A warm body was pressed to yours and, as you woke, you began to flex your fingers. They seemed good as new, if not just a little more blue than before, and they didn’t ache with a build up of magic like they used to.

How many years before they’d feel heavy again? How many more years before your under-used magic killed another? Oh - you sat up faster than you should have, pushing yourself away from the body next to you. You prepared the magic again, it burning through your veins overused, overexerted, and weaker than you had ever felt it. You nearly toppled off of the cart, but Mollymauk surged forward and seized your wrists, pulling you into his chest. “Be careful!” He muttered, “Jessie just finished healing you, she’ll take my tail if I let you stumble off of the cart.” You gasped into his chest, eyes wide and unseeing as Molly clutched you to his body. “Darling, talk to me.”

“Mollymauk, what’s going to happen to me?” You whispered, “I killed Rog, and I killed another shopkeep, years ago. Molly, they’ll kill me.” His lips pressed to your forehead and he caught your eye, cupping your face. “I don’t want to die.”

Molly smiled, kissing you slowly and softly, giving you plenty of time to object or pull away but you didn’t. You didn’t, of course you didn’t! “The Crownsguard took hold of the tavern. Fjord convinced them, distracted them really, and we got you on our cart. They cannot put you to death if they don’t know where you’re at, darling.”

“Why would you risk your lives for me? I can’t even control my magic, Molly. What if…” You hid your face in his shoulder, grasping for purchase on his flashy clothing. “Mollymauk, what if I hurt one of you? Jester, Nott…” You shudder, “What if I hurt you? Then I’m no better than -” Your voice raised and then broke as you cut yourself off, freezing in Molly’s arms. Molly, to his credit, only freezing impossibly as he held you.

“Did… Rog…?”

“Molly, please -”

“-No, darling, please… Please.” He sounded pained, “You don’t have to tell me, but please don’t ever believe that you could be like that man.” He pulled back, brushing the backs of his fingers down your face. “Darling, you’ve made such an impact on our life.” He kissed you, soft and slow and sweet - well, as much as a tiefling can do things in a soft, slow, sweet way. His tail curled around you after the kiss was done and held you close to him. The cart was still bumbling away, down the road to your new life and away from your unfortunate end. You were more than happy to go with Molly, with the Mighty Nein, and maybe you’d learn to control your magic…

Jester, from where you hadn’t seen her on the other side of the cart, perked up. “We are so much closer to being the Mighty Nine, now!”


End file.
